Did Jill Zarin’s $16,000 Handbag piss you off?

I remember watching the Real Housewives of New York on Bravo TV reuinion show, yep, I’m completely a sucker for really bad reailty TV, and remember a fan writing in and asking Jill Zarin if she felt bad about spending a ton of money on a purse when there are soo many people struggling in this economy and soo many people starving.  Jill immediately said no and by her spending money she is helping the economy and to tell you the truth, she really actually is.

Lets think about the Socialites spending ridiculous amounts of money on random things and how it helps and benefits you as a regular citizen of the United States, and even spreads out into the rest of the world to help everyone.

You see Jill walk into the Designer’s condo to pick out her bag styles, design and color.  You see the Designer light up when Jill picks her bag out and then you see the smile grow on the Designer’s face when she realizes that she not only just made thousands of dollars on one bag, but also got to do it on a seriously popular TV show which could develop even more business for her.  It may piss you off or make you jealous that Jill can do this and you cannot, and when watching, you may also think it is not only offensive that people spend this much on something like a bag, but lets think about something else, how does Jill’s purchase effect you, or people just like you?

The money she just spent has to go somewhere and one of the first places it goes is probably into a bank account which allows the bank to have money on hand, which then goes to help emlploy a private rep. for the rich and a teller to help you out and keeps even more people employed.

The next place the money goes is to the place where the Designer now has to go to buy the fabrics, the tools and materials that she needs to not only design out the bag, but also to create it, finish it and then get it ready for Jill.  When the money hits that fabric store or even the craft store or dealers, it then goes to pay salaries, pay for utilities, pay for local taxes to pay for firemen and police which again goes to pay for you to have a little bit more safety.  Not to mention the sales tax that gets paid on her bag which goes to pay for the schools that educated you and now your children, pay for us to have clean water, parks, clean streets and even security for our own Country and lives.

Now, there are a million more things I can say about the next step where Jills $16,000 went, but lets go to the next round of people.

The people who work at those stores have to get paid eventually.  The money Jill spent helps to not only pay their salaries, but these people also need to eat so they go to the grocery stores, restaurants and they probably go to the movies and spend money there as well.  They probably need clothing so they shop at stores like Macys and they probably need to have somewhere to live so they then have to pay rent and if something breaks in your building, the costs almost always ends up on the tenants.  With more tenants in the building who pay their bills and in turn get to continue to live in the building, the lower the cost of the broken building parts will be on you when the costs of them get passed down on to you.

Now, lets even think about the rest of world.

When Jill makes her purchase, chances are the fabrics, the materials, etc… are not all created right here in the USA or even in North America.  By Jill shopping and buying that bag, she has now helped to create jobs around the world because even $10 can be someone’s food for a month in a third world country.  Not to mention that because she made that purchase and the money went to make a fabric, usually someone from a US company has to go over there to look over the fabrics and so again, there is another person who has to buy an Airline ticket, book travel through their Travel Agent and further helps to spend money in the USA helping our economy, but then they go and spend money on a hotel in another country and they still need to eat, etc… so they also help other Countries as well.

So when you actually think about it, and think about people who are spending thousands of dollars on a tshirt or a bag, you should also think about the fact that these people are also not only helping to keep our economy afloat, but these people are also having a direct impact on peoples lives just like you or me.

Without them spending money on things you may feel are ridiculous, your life and people just like you will be effected and without them spending money on these things, well we would be much worse off than we are right now.  So before you judge someone like Jill Zarin again for spending that much money on a bag or a shirt or a blouse, remember that her purchase directly impacts your life and benefits you and the people you know and love so you should actually help to encourage her to shop and encourage more shopping from people like her.  Sure, oevrspending got us into trouble, but at the same time the people who can afford it are helping to not only protect us, but also our economy.

Anyways, just a random thought for the day.

Best,

Adam